encouraging the vassals, and disciplining the troops, to protect the menaced empire from impending ruin.
Nor was Cortéz, in his turn, idle in exciting the combined forces of the Spaniards and Indians for the last effort which it was probable he could make for the success of his great enterprise.
His Spanish force consisted of nigh six hundred men, forty of whom were cavalry, together with eighty arquebusiers and crossbowmen. Nine cannon of small calibre, supplied with indifferent powder, constituted his train of artillery. His army of Indian allies is estimated at the doubtless exaggerated number of over one hundred thousand, armed with the maquahuatil, pikes, bows, arrows, and divided into battalions, each with its own banners, insignia and commanders. His appeal to all the members of this motley array was couched in language likely to touch the passions, the bigotry, the enthusiasm and avarice of various classes; and, after once more crossing the mountains, and reaching the margin of the lakes, he encamped on the 31st of December, 1520, within the venerable precincts of Tezcoco, "the place of rest."
At Tezcoco, Cortéz was firmly planted on the eastern edge of the valley of Mexico, in full sight of the capital which lay across the lake, near its western shore, at the distance of about twelve miles. Behind him, towards the seacoast, he commanded the country, as we have already related, while, by passes through lower spurs of the mountains, he might easily communicate with the valleys of which the Tlascalans and Cholulans were masters.
Fortifying himself strongly in his dwelling and in the quarters of his men, in Tezcoco, he at once applied himself to the task of securing such military positions in the valley and in the neighborhood of the great causeway between the lakes as would command an outlet from the capital by land, and enable him to advance across the waters of Tezcoco